Client users interact with information via user interfaces, such as menus of data items (e.g., buttons, tiles, icons and/or text) by which a client user may make a desired selection. For example, a client user may view a scrollable menu containing data items representing video content, such as movies or television shows, and interact with the menu items to select a movie or television show for viewing.
A significant amount of information may be made available to client users. For example, with respect to a video such as a movie, in addition to the movie's title, a movie's associated data may include a rating, one or more images that represent the movie, a plot summary, cast and crew information, other credits and so on, which users often wish to have. However, it generally takes a while to assemble such information at the data service and download it to the client device. The client device then processes the information for rendering on a user interface.
When dealing with large numbers of data items, it can take a long time for a client to download and process the information. The amount of time can be undesirable, particularly when the information is downloaded via relatively low bandwidth connections, and/or processed by relatively low-powered client devices.